2.4.11

Exodus 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

My Thoughts

Oh I read this and thought this is such our way of life... so much so that we don't even know that we are coveting anymore... Commercials are based on "Look what everybody else has don't you want it too!!"...  "You are not going to be as good as your neighbor if you don't get this." The media bombards us with how important it is to have what our neighbors have and even more.  This last recession happened because everybody from the top to the bottom wanted more...the loan companies wanted more money, people wanted more house than they could truly afford.  People wanted more toys and put those toys on with their house loans.  We drive around neighborhoods with big beautiful houses and feel like we don't have enough.... we never drive around sad neighborhoods so we can go home and be thankful for the homes we do have.  Next time we take one of those drives and we are having the "I don't haves"...we need to go and get a shot of the "I have so much" before we go back home to our warm, safe, nice houses so we will feel all thankful.  Wanting to do better than we are doing and working hard at doing better  is one thing...wanting to have more than the next guy is a whole different story.  When we want to do better we work hard and when we are doing better we reward ourselves... When we want what others have we use credit cards and equity in our homes to have and we put our welfare and the welfare of our families in danger. We in essence tell God he hasn't done enough for us.  Next time we are having the "I wants"... when we don't have the money in our pockets or the money we do have  is earmarked for something else we need to get out a piece of paper and make a list of the "I haves" and then look up to heaven and thank God for all he has given us.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to rebel against the advertisements that tell us we don't have enough, we aren't enough... we will never be enough. Because God tells us we are wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). We need to tell God, "God you have given me so much! More than I need! I am sorry if I have every acted like anything you have given me wasn't enough!"